Yes, another battery problem- Please read

[Skittllez]

Hi everyone,

Yes, yes, yes, it's another battery post.

I bought my new MacBook Pro i5 15" on Tuesday last week. I love it so far, but the battery....

I calibrated on the weekend, (drained completely, and charged it overnight). But now, the battery tells me I have 2 hours and 25 minutes left... at 96% full. I only have this page open, iTunes and a Pages document. Same thing happened last night and only lasted around 3 hours.

Secondly, say I keep this past the 14 day window, and the battery gets even worse, what is Apple's deal with poor batteries... Is it possible to get it replaced for free?

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[DeusInvictus7]

The battery is warrantied for the first year if there is a manufacturing defect, which by what you're describing, seems to be the case. Bring it in to an Apple Store, and they'll run diagnostics on your battery and go from there.

 

[celticpride678]

Apple's deal with battery replacements: If there are less than 300 cycles on the battery, and the capacity is under 100%, it will be replaced for free under Apple Care.

You didn't calibrate the battery properly: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490

Open Activity Monitor and see if anything is taking up a good amount of RAM or CPU.

 

[spinnerlys]

Open Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor and select SHOW ALL PROCESSES and sort by CPU usage.

Is there any process that uses more than 10%?

Btw, how is your thread different from any of the others? Many complain about the same issues, and many have good hints and answers, like that Activity Monitor thing or even battery health (CoconutBattery or System Profiler or iStat Pro will tell you).

Apple guarantees 80% original battery capacity (health) within 1000 cycles*, if you get less than 80 in less than 1000 in the first 365/6 days of your purchase, your battery is replaced.

* with the current integrated batteries, it's 300 cycles with the older, user-replaceable batteries.

 

[Skittllez]

Apple's deal with battery replacements: If there are less than 300 cycles on the battery, and the capacity is under 100%, it will be replaced for free under Apple Care.

You didn't calibrate the battery properly: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1490

Open Activity Monitor and see if anything is taking up a good amount of RAM or CPU.

I've been watching it and iTunes is at 7% and Safari around 8% with only this tab. And yes, realized I didn't correctly calibrate so I will re-do this weekend. Thank you guys,

 

[Ronnoco]

I saw some very poor battery times when I first used my 15" i5...
One of the reasons was whenever I opened Chrome (which I use as my default browser) it kicked in the nVIDIA GPU which just KILLS the battery...
I quickly solved this by downloading GPUInfoMenu and checked the "Use Integrated GPU on Battery" selection (I also use gfxCardStatus to make sure I choose the Intel chip)...once I did this my battery time indicator started to give me times like "8 hours" or "7.5 hours" when I was just surfing and doing email with display brightness at 50%, Bluetooth off and backlit keyboard either very low or off...

That nVIDIA chip is a HUGE battery hog and it is forced by some apps you wouldn't expect to be used for (Chrome, iChat, Skype etc)...

 

[Mirabella]

I calibrated on the weekend, (drained completely, and charged it overnight).

First thing to mention: After completely draining the batery, you are not supposed to charge it for 5 hours. If you recharged it, overnight, without letting it stay dead for five hours, then you did not properly calibrate the battery.

But now, the battery tells me I have 2 hours and 25 minutes left... at 96% full. I only have this page open, iTunes and a Pages document. Same thing happened last night and only lasted around 3 hours.

It sounds, from what you are describing, as though the battery may be defective. However, as Spinnerlys mentioned, it would help get a better sense of what may be going on if you look at your activity monitor. If there's anything notable, you may want to share it, to get better answers.

When I did this, I found some legacy Palm software that had been on my system for years, brought over by the Migration Transfer, which was making my system select the NVIDIA GPU, thereby lowering how long my battery would last. I wouldn't have discovered that, without looking at the Activity monitor, and/or without using Cody Kreiger's gfxCardStatus, to figure it out.

Secondly, say I keep this past the 14 day window, and the battery gets even worse, what is Apple's deal with poor batteries... Is it possible to get it replaced for free?

Apple has replaced 2 defective batteries for me, for free. If your battery is truly defective, and/or if you meet their criterion, they will take care of the replacement without any trouble, in my experience.

 

[Skittllez]

First thing to mention: After completely draining the batery, you are not supposed to charge it for 5 hours. If you recharged it, overnight, without letting it stay dead for five hours, then you did not properly calibrate the battery.

So when I recharge, can I use the laptop or let it charge by itself?

I saw some very poor battery times when I first used my 15" i5...
One of the reasons was whenever I opened Chrome (which I use as my default browser) it kicked in the nVIDIA GPU which just KILLS the battery...
I quickly solved this by downloading GPUInforMenu and checked the "Use Integrated GPU on Battery" selection (I also use gfxCardStatus to make sure I choose the Intel chip)...once I did this my battery time indicator started to give me times like "8 hours" or "7.5 hours" when I was just surfing and doing email with display brightness at 50%, Bluetooth off and backlit keyboard either very low or off...

That nVIDIA chip is a HUGE battery hog and it is forced by some apps you wouldn't expect to be used for (Chrome, iChat, Skype etc)...

Thanks! I'm going to download them right now! IS there any harm using the Intel graphics when using apps like iMovie or even Skype?

EDIT: Ronnoco do you mind posting a link to the GPUInforMenu as I can't seem to find it on google haha

 

[Skittllez]

Update: Since my first post (around 40 minutes ago) I've lost 33% of battery... Yikes. Half brightness, no Bluetooth.

Starting to use Intel only

 

[ECUpirate44]

make sure no CPU hogs are running in the background processes

 

[Skittllez]

HOLY JESUS! iavd at 96%!!!! It's iAntiVirus jsut realized...

Also, is it odd that iTunes is running at 18%?

 

[spinnerlys]

HOLY JESUS! iavd at 96%!!!! It's iAntiVirus jsut realized...

Also, is it odd that iTunes is running at 18%?

You really don't need iAV, as there are no viruses currently in public circulation for Mac OS X. And are the 18% for iTunes constant?

 

[doktordoris]

HOLY JESUS! iavd at 96%!!!! It's iAntiVirus jsut realized...

Also, is it odd that iTunes is running at 18%?

Not another one!

You do NOT need anti virus software with a mac, all it does is make the publishers wealthy and eats your macs resources. Get rid of it.

 

[Skittllez]

You really don't need iAV, as there are no viruses currently in public circulation for Mac OS X. And are the 18% for iTunes constant?

Okay I'll only use it when it's needed and leave it off until then. And yes, 18% or higher constantly for about... 5 minutes

 

[airplaneman]

Hi everyone,

Yes, yes, yes, it's another battery post.

I bought my new MacBook Pro i5 15" on Tuesday last week. I love it so far, but the battery....

I calibrated on the weekend, (drained completely, and charged it overnight). But now, the battery tells me I have 2 hours and 25 minutes left... at 96% full. I only have this page open, iTunes and a Pages document. Same thing happened last night and only lasted around 3 hours.

Secondly, say I keep this past the 14 day window, and the battery gets even worse, what is Apple's deal with poor batteries... Is it possible to get it replaced for free?

Thank you very much for your help.

Do you have your screen brightness and keyboard backlight on full force? This might be a factor. Is bluetooth on? Did you only word process and surf? Flash drains battery. As for iTunes, depends on what you're doing. Playing regular music for me takes 5-10%.

 

[Skittllez]

Do you have your screen brightness and keyboard backlight on full force? This might be a factor. Is bluetooth on? Did you only word process and surf? Flash drains battery. As for iTunes, depends on what you're doing. Playing regular music for me takes 5-10%.

Yes, half brightness, no backlit keyboard, no bluetooth. Yes, I'm making sure no Flash Player thing shows up on Activity Monitor

 

[Skittllez]

Okay nevermind, iTunes is back at 7% +/-. But what is WindowServer... keeps showing up on the Activity Monitor every minute or so at 16-33%

 

[doktordoris]

Okay I'll only use it when it's needed and leave it off until then. And yes, 18% or higher constantly for about... 5 minutes

What do you mean "when it is needed"?

There are NO mac viruses.

 

[Skittllez]

What do you mean "when it is needed"?

There are NO mac viruses.

Chill man haha. I'll just leave it off then

 

[spinnerlys]

Okay nevermind, iTunes is back at 7% +/-. But what is WindowServer... keeps showing up on the Activity Monitor every minute or so at 16-33%

WindowServer is responsible for the fancy GUI you see on top of that UNIX/BSD layer.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/300096/

Also have a look at the following links, as the information presented there might be helpful in your future endeavours into Mac OS X and could clear up initial confusion and may even prevent harm to your system or your files.


Mac OS X Basics

Switch 101 - guide with articles made by Apple on how to accustom yourself, after you switched to Mac OS X from Windows​

Mac 101 - How to get started with Mac OS X​

Find out how - tutorial videos made by Apple on how to do certain thing in Mac OS X​

Pro tips - tips made available by Apple for easier ways of doing certain tasks​

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts - Learn about common Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts.​

Mac OS X Beginner's Guide by MacRumors - learn about software, media players, shortcuts and some useful tips, tricks and hints​

Mac Guides - tutorials, product guides and more​

MRoogle - a very effective tool to search these fora using Google and made available by edesignuk, introductory threads: 1, 2 and 3​

PS: Run as many AV software as you want though, use MRoogle to find the right one.

PPS:

Apple on notebook batteries
Apple Portable: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance

 

[djasterix]

HOLY JESUS! iavd at 96%!!!! It's iAntiVirus jsut realized...

Also, is it odd that iTunes is running at 18%?

You don't need that on MAC, just download clamXav AV if you want to scan your HD once in a while just to be sure there's nothing there, like a mail attachement, that can harm another (PC) computer.

 

[Mirabella]

So when I recharge, can I use the laptop or let it charge by itself?

It's fine to use it while it's recharging.

 

[doktordoris]

Chill man haha. I'll just leave it off then

Sorry.

I just wanted to make a point.

It makes me mad when publishers try to foist av software on mac owners with their list of 30 odd viruses. I have looked through their entire list and all the "viruses" are nonsense.

 

[Skittllez]

Okay thank you very much everyone! I got almost all my questions answered. Awesome. Thanks again!

 

[Ronnoco]

So when I recharge, can I use the laptop or let it charge by itself?




Thanks! I'm going to download them right now! IS there any harm using the Intel graphics when using apps like iMovie or even Skype?

EDIT: Ronnoco do you mind posting a link to the GPUInforMenu as I can't seem to find it on google haha

HERE
I actually run both of those GPU apps...I like that GPUInfoMenu uses the actual logos of the GPU manufactures (Intel and nVIDIA)...I use the GPUInfoMenu to force the Intel on battery and I use gfxCardStatus to chose between the chips (I've found that when watching HD video clearly the nVIDIA just blows away the Intel chip)...anyway having both give you more flexibility with the GPU's...